King Of America
Excerpt from Rhino liner notes:
This is not the time for me to speak specifically about some of the personal events behind this album. These are pretty plainspoken songs. Indoor Fireworks is a lament to the end of love. Poisoned Rose and I'll Wear It Proudly are songs about the danger and uncertainty of desire. They point to the tone of the succeeding album, Blood & Chocolate. There was a sense of new dedication in Jack Of All Parades.
Several songs employ a narrative form to make the private details seem less self-regarding. American Without Tears compares my own experience to my grandfather's travels to New York in the 1920s. Other songs focus on macabre tales and some of the grotesques that I had encountered on my own American travels. Our Little Angel, Glitter Gulch, and Brilliant Mistake continue the theme of exile and a simultaneous attraction and repulsion to an ideal. That is why the album is called King Of America. It is inherently contradictory.
Tracks
Side 1
01. Brilliant Mistake [3:45]
02. Lovable [2:51]
03. Our Little Angel [4:04]
04. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood [3:18]
05. Glitter Gulch [3:14]
06. Indoor Fireworks [4:06]
07. Little Palaces [3:48]
08. I'll Wear It Proudly [4:19]
Side 2
09. American Without Tears [4:31]
10. Eisenhower Blues [3:43]
11. Poisoned Rose [4:05]
12. The Big Light [2:32]
13. Jack Of All Parades [5:17]
14. Suit Of Lights [4:02]
15. Sleep Of The Just [3:51]
Credits
- Produced by: T-Bone Burnett & Elvis Costello with Larry Kalman Hirsch
- Musicians:
- Elvis Costello (Little Hands Of Concrete) - acoustic guitar, vocals
- Mickey Curry - brushes & drums
- Jerry Scheff - string bass
- T-Bone Wolk - electric guitar, piano accordeon
- Mitchell Froom - Hammond organ/harpsichord
- Elvis Costello - acoustic/electric guitar, vocals
- Jerry Scheff - electric bass
- Jim Keltner - sticks & drums
- Mitchell Froom - organ
- David Hidalgo - harmony vocals
Our Little Angel & Glitter Gulch:
- Elvis Costello - acoustic guitar, vocals
- James Burton - electric guitar, dobro
- Jerry Scheff - string bass
- Ron Tutt - brushes & drums
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood:
- Elvis Costello - vocals
- Michael Blair - marimba
- Jerry Scheff - string bass
- Jim Keltner - brushes & drums
- Mitchell Froom - Hammond organ
- T-Bone Burnett - electric guitar
- Elvis Costello - acoustic guitar, vocals
- James Burton - acoustic guitar
- Jerry Scheff - string bass
- Mitchell Froom - Hammond organ
- Elvis Costello - acoustic guitar, vocals
- Jerry Scheff - electric bass
- Jim Keltner - brushes & drums
- Mitchell Froom - Hammond organ
- Elvis Costello - acoustic guitar, vocals
- Jo-El Sonnier - French accordion
- James Burton - acoustic guitar
- Jerry Scheff - string bass
- Ron Tutt - brushes & drums
- Elvis Costello - vocals
- Ray Brown - string bass
- Earl Palmer - brushes & drums
- Tom Canning - piano
- Mitchell Froom - Hammond organ
- T-Bone Burnett - electric guitar
- Elvis Costello - vocals
- Ray Brown - string bass
- Earl Palmer - brushes & drums
- Tom Canning - piano
- Mitchell Froom - Hammond organ
- Elvis Costello - acoustic guitar, vocals
- T-Bone Wolk - electric bass
- Mickey Curry - sticks & drums
- Mitchell Froom - Hammond organ
- Steve Nieve - piano
- Elvis Costello - acoustic guitar, vocals
- Bruce Thomas - electric bass
- Pete Thomas - sticks & drums
- Steve Nieve - piano, Hammond organ
- Elvis Costello - acoustic guitar, vocals
- Mitchell Froom - doctored piano
- Jerry Scheff - electric bass
- Jim Keltner - brushes & drums
